Iron Man (2008)
| running time = 126 min. | country = USA | language = English | budget = $140,000,000 | gross revenue = $318,412,101 (US) $585,174,222 (Worldwide) | preceded by = | followed by = Iron Man 2 (2010) }} Iron Man is an American feature film of the superhero fantasy and science fiction genres. It is based on a family of comic book titles published by Marvel Comics featuring the eponymous superhero, Iron Man. The film was directed by Jon Favreau with a screenplay written by Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Art Marcum and Matt Holloway, based upon characters originally created by Stan Lee, Don Heck and Larry Lieber. It was produced by Marvel Studios and released theatrically in the United States on May 2nd, 2008. Iron Man is the first film in a franchise and is also notable for kick-starting the shared continuity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Iron Man stars Robert Downey, Jr. as billionaire industrialist Tony Stark, who is the head of Stark Industries – a weapons manufacturing plant. The movie also stars Jeff Bridges as unscrupulous contemporary Obadiah Stane, Gwyneth Paltrow as Tony's trusty assistant Pepper Potts, and Terrence Howard as Tony's best friend and military liaison, James Rhodes. Other stars in the film include Clark Gregg as S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Phil Coulson, Leslie Bibb as Vanity Fair reporter Christine Everhart, Shaun Toub as captured scientist Yinsen, Faran Tahir as terrorist Raza and Paul Bettany as the voice of JARVIS – Tony Stark’s A.I. computer. Director Jon Favreau also plays a minor role in the film as Tony’s chauffeur, Harold "Happy" Hogan. Iron Man is the first film in what has come to be known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The next film in the series is The Incredible Hulk, which was directed by Louis Leterrier and released in June, 2008. The Iron Man franchise continues with Iron Man 2, which is also directed by Jon Favreau and released on May 7th, 2010. The plot of the movie focuses on Tony Stark, who is an aloof, yet brilliant inventor who is critically injured while doing a sales presentation for the US military in Afghanistan. Taken prisoner by a Middle Eastern terrorist cabal known as the Ten Rings, Tony is forced to construct weapons of mass destruction for them. Instead, he builds a suit of armor, which he uses to fight his way to freedom. Having seen first-hand the atrocities that his company’s products are responsible for, Tony adopts a new attitude towards how the future of his company will progress. After several upgrades and a few trial runs, Tony comes up with his greatest invention ever – a suit of red and gold armor powered by an arc reactor. Tony uses the Iron Man armor to fight back against the terrorists that had kidnapped him, never realizing that the most dangerous threat to his life comes from within his own inner circle. Plot Cast Notes & Trivia * Production on Iron Man began on March 12th, 2007. Principal filming on the movie concluded on June 25th, 2007. * A tagline for the film is, "Heroes aren't born. They're built." * Production on Iron Man began on March 12th, 2007. Principal filming concluded on June 25th, 2007. IMDB; Iron Man (2008); Box office & business. * Iron Man was released on home video in Region 1 DVD format by Paramount Home Video on September 30th, 2008. It was released as both a single-edition and Ultimate two-disc edition. A Wal-Mart-exclusive release included a preview of Iron Man: Armored Adventures. The DVD was released in Europe in Region 2 format on October 27th, 2008. * Iron Man includes an after-credit end scene featuring Samuel L. Jackson as super-spy and head of S.H.I.E.L.D., Nick Fury. After making an oblique comment about Tony Stark’s public admission to being Iron Man, Nick tells him that he wants to talk about something called the Avengers Initiative. * Marvel Comics adapted the events of the film in the two-issue limited series Iron Man: I Am Iron Man!. The comic series is part of the film continuity as opposed to the regular Marvel Universe continuity, and includes material not shown in the film. * The comic book miniseries, ''Iron Man: Viva Las Vegas'' takes place within the continuity of the film series and was written by director Jon Favreau. However, the series was never completed, and only two of the three planned issues exist. * This is the only film in the series with Terrence Howard playing Jim Rhodes. Beginning with ''Iron Man 2'', the role is played by Don Cheadle. Recommendations See also External Links * * Iron Man at MDP * * Iron Man at Wikipedia * * * * Iron Man at the Marvel Movies Wiki References ---- Category:Iron Man/Films Category:Iron Man (2008)/Miscellaneous Category:2008/Films Category:May, 2008/Films Category:1st installments Category:Marvel Studios Category:Marvel Entertainment Category:Paramount Pictures